ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct. 16 - Israel Brushes Off US Criticism Of Targeted Killings.

Sharon aide Zalman Shoval says Israel is fighting "Palestinian terrorism" the same way the US is waging war against Bin Ladin and his Al Qaida terrorist network. He says Israel does not want to harm Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, just as the US does not want to endanger the wider Afghan population. "The only alternative is to target those terrorist perpetrators who are directly responsible for murder and bloodshed". But US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that while Israel's policy and the US hunt for Bin Ladin might be similar, "that doesn't mean the two situations are comparable or require the same response". (The US criticism comes after Israeli snipers killed Hamad, a member of Hamas, on Oct. 14. PA officials also accused Israel of assassinating a Hamas activist who died in an explosion in Nablus on Oct. 15. On Oct. 16, a Hamas member, Yad Akhraz, was killed in his home in the Gaza Strip by an explosion that the Islamic movement attributed to the Israeli Army). Meanwhile, visiting the Czech Republic, FM Peres says: "We want to see an independent Palestinian state successful, flourishing. We think that the better the Palestinians will have it, the better neighbour we shall have".